Pablo Chang-Castillo: Career in Interpretation a Moveable Feast

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you—for Paris is a moveable feast.” If a single sentence could capture Pablo Chang-Castillo’s (MAT ’01/MACI ’02) life, Ernest Hemingway would be its author.

Pablo was born in a tiny village on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua, but his family was granted political asylum in the United States when he was a child and he grew up in a bilingual family between Central America (Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras) and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a teenager he was given the opportunity to study abroad in Limoges, France and that was when a life-long love affair with the country, its culture, and language began.

As a Monterey Institute student, Pablo received a scholarship to return to France as an exchange student to Institut Supérieur d'Interprétation et de Traduction, this time to Paris, to study conference interpretation. In Paris he met his life and business partner, Julien Brasseur (MATI ’02) and together they moved their feast to Monterey to finish their graduate studies. The Monterey Institute was a catalyst in their meeting and has continued to factor greatly in their interlinked professional lives.

As Pablo explains, “The friendships I made during my time at MIIS opened many doors for me at the start of my career.” He adds that the reputation of MIIS further helped jumpstart an amazing career. Pablo’s work has led him to travel around the entire world, including interpreting assignments for world-renowned chefs, movie stars, major international sporting events, international organizations, live television broadcasts, and accompanying high level diplomats and world leaders on official visits to foreign countries.

This interpretation power couple recently moved from San Francisco back to Paris, where they work as freelance interpreters while still maintaining their U.S.-based translation and interpretation business. “Now I am the one opening doors for MIIS graduates and that gives me great joy,” Pablo says.

For more stories about MIIS and its alumni, current students, faculty and staff visit the online version of our alumni publication, the Communiqué.

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